FOLKLORES AND THE UNDERSTANDING OF THE HISTORY OF AFRICAN SOCIETIES

Abstract

In most cases, folklores have been identified to serve as means of entertainment and leisure in various African communities. The intellectual role of folklores especially on its relevance to the study of African history is often not given much attention. The essence of this paper is to discuss the relevance of folklores in the reconstruction, study and understanding of African history. Although history deals with facts while folklores deal with imagination and stories, they influence one another. Folklores, as this paper argues, are derived from the environmental, social, economic and political institutions of real life situations and thus provide the basis for understanding societal superstructures. Using largely secondary sources, this paper further explains that, folklores constitute another significant aspect of oral tradition, though seems to be less utilized by historians. This work adopted descriptive methodology of research. The study of folklores, as this paper shows, helps our understanding of traditions and cultures and relationship between people and their natural environment over a period of time. The paper finally calls for the recovery, preservation and utilization of folklores in historical writing.